This invention relates to radio broadcasting and, more particularly, to methods of and apparatus for estimating signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of digital carriers in an amplitude modulated compatible digital broadcasting system.
There has been increasing interest in the possibility of broadcasting digitally encoded audio signals to provide improved audio fidelity. Several approaches have been suggested. One such approach, set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,022, teaches a method for simultaneously broadcasting analog and digital signals in a standard AM broadcasting channel. An amplitude modulated radio frequency signal having a first frequency spectrum is broadcast. The amplitude modulated radio frequency signal includes a first carrier modulated by an analog program signal. Simultaneously, a plurality of digitally modulated carrier signals are broadcast within a bandwidth that encompasses the first frequency spectrum. Each of the digitally modulated carrier signals is modulated by a portion of a digital program signal. A first group of the digitally modulated carrier signals lies within the first frequency spectrum and is modulated in quadrature with the first carrier signal. Second and third groups of the digitally modulated carrier signals lie outside of the first frequency spectrum and are modulated both in-phase and in-quadrature with the first carrier signal.
The waveform in the AM compatible digital audio broadcasting system described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,022, has been formulated to provide sufficient data throughput for the digital signal while avoiding crosstalk into the analog AM channel. Multiple carriers are employed by means of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) to bear the communicated information.
Monophonic detectors for consumer AM radios respond only to the envelope and not the phase of the received signal. Because of the use of the multiple digitally modulated carriers, there is a need for a means to reduce the envelope distortion caused by this hybrid signal. U.S. Pat. No. 5,859,876, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, discloses a method for reducing envelope distortion in an AM compatible digital audio broadcasting system. Certain digital carriers that are above the frequency of the analog AM carrier have an associated digital carrier that is at an equal frequency offset below the analog AM carrier. The data and modulation placed on the upper digital carrier and its counterpart are such that the signal resulting from their addition has no component that is in-phase with the analog AM carrier. Digital carrier pairs arranged in this way are said to be complementary. This configuration delivers dramatic fidelity improvements to analog AM reception of AM compatible digital broadcast signals.
At the receiver, the digital signal is demodulated by means of a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). One possible method and associated apparatus is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,633,896. That patent discloses a demodulation technique which minimizes the undesired crosstalk between the analog signal and the digital signals in an AM compatible digital audio broadcasting (AM DAB) system using an orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) modulation format, by employing dual fast Fourier transform processes on separate respective in-phase and quadrature-phase components of a received OFDM digital signal. The output of the quadrature channel is used to recover the complementary data, and the resultant processed component signals are summed to recover the non-complementary data.
The received multi-carrier signal requires equalization in the presence of dynamic channel response variations. Without such equalization, a very distorted signal would be detected and the digital broadcasting signal information would be unrecoverable. An equalizer enhances the recoverability of the digital audio broadcasting signal information. One such equalizer is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,559,830. The equalizer disclosed therein includes means for receiving an AM compatible digital audio broadcasting waveform and storing that waveform as a waveform vector. The equalizer then processes that waveform by multiplying the waveform vector by an equalization vector. This equalization vector comprises a plurality of equalizer coefficients, each of the coefficients initially set to a predetermined value. The equalizer then compares each location of the processed waveform vector with a stored waveform vector. The equalizer selects as the signal that vector location closest to the stored waveform vector. Preferably, the equalizer includes means for updating the equalizer coefficients using the waveform vector, the processed waveform vector, and the stored waveform vector to provide immunity to noise and response to changes in the propagation channel.
In the equalizers of both U.S. Pat. No. 5,633,896 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,559,830, frequency domain information is presented to the equalizer as a frequency domain vector. Each block of frequency domain information is stored in a storage array. This storage array vector is multiplied by a plurality of equalizer coefficients. The resulting product of this multiplication is the equalized signal. A set of exact values is known a priori in the equalizer against which each vector location of the equalized signal can be compared. The ideal value closest to that described in the vector location is chosen as the actual signal value. The vector of decisions is stored in a decision array. Using the received signal, the equalized signal and decision array, an equalizer coefficient estimator calculates coefficient estimates. The rate of coefficient update determines equalizer noise immunity and convergence rate. Coefficients in different parts of the band may be updated at different rates depending on knowledge of the distortion mechanism. U.S. Pat. No. 5,633,896 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,559,830 are hereby incorporated by reference.
One proposed AM DAB system uses trellis coded modulation of the digital carriers. When trellis coded modulation is used, enhanced receiver performance may be possible when the received SNR is used in the trellis decoding. This is especially true in OFDM systems where the SNR for some of the carriers may be much different than the SNR of the other carriers due to frequency selective fading or interference that affects only part of the frequency band. Therefore, there is a need for accurate SNR estimates in In-Band On-Channel (IBOC) DAB systems using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing.
The present invention provides a method of estimating SNR for a plurality of carriers modulated with digital information, wherein the digital information includes data baud and training baud, comprising the steps of: receiving the plurality of carriers; determining a first SNR for the data baud; determining a second SNR for the training baud; comparing at least one of the first and second SNRs to predetermined selection criteria; and selecting one of the first and second SNRs based on the comparison step.
In the preferred embodiment, the carriers are processed to produce an equalizer output for each of the carriers, and the equalizer output is processed to produce a symbol decision for each of the carriers. The equalizer output is subtracted from the symbol decision when a data baud is received to produce a first difference value, and the first difference value is squared to produce a first SNR estimate. The equalizer output is also subtracted from predetermined training data when a training baud is received to produce a second difference value, and the second difference value is squared to produce a second SNR estimate.
The invention also encompasses the operation of radio frequency receivers that utilize the above method, as well as apparatus that performs the above method and radio frequency receivers that include the apparatus.